Sunday, 11 May 2008

Kenya-Ghana games collaboration

Writing for Computerworld Kenya, Rebecca Wanjiku ("Kenya-Ghana collaboration seeks to revive game production") describes the collaboration between Wesley Kiriinya, Kenya's top video game producer, and Eyram Tawia (Topssoft Computer Services, Ghana) in the production of world-class games. Kiriinya (technical director at Sinc-studios) produced Kenya's first video game, "Adventures of Nyangi", which is based on African folklore, a feature he intends to present to the world stage. Citing the scarcity of video games with themes based on African traditions, Kiriinya said the world needs to understand Africa beyond the natural and human-made tragedies that make the news.

Collaborations of this type face challenges from insufficient funding and the lack of well-equipped colleges to train programmers and software developers. Some countries, like Kenya, do not have clearly stipulated guidelines for software development, and Kiriinya adds that many developers there don't realize they need software licences. The trade mark and patenting laws also are not well-developed, and some processes take months before completion, which discourages some developers who may want to protect their work.

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